Don Bodard

Published September 27, 1997

© Shawnee News Star

Don Bodard

Shawnee philanthropist and oilman Don Bodard died Friday of a heart attack at the age of 77.

Bodard was born December 17, 1919, in Gotebo, to J. B. and Retha Mae Smith, and was reared in the oil boom days.

In 1934, his family moved to Earlsboro, and Bodard began working in the oil fields at age fifteen. His first oil field job was cutting grass around the tank batteries. He was a second generation oil man, and he worked in all phases of the drilling industry, from building the old wooden derricks to working as a roughneck, derrickman or whatever he could find. His family followed the oil boom and moved where the wildcat wells were being drilled.

He graduated from Earlsboro High School in 1939 and continued his education at the University of Oklahoma until he entered the U. S. Air Force in May, 1942. During the war, he served in the Pacific Theatre of Operations in New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, the Phillipines and Okinawa until the war was over.

After World War II, Bodard again entered the drilling business and put together his first drilling rig in 1947. Bodard was owner of Bodard Drilling Company in Shawnee, and was a partner in Bodard-Hale Drilling Company. He co-founded the Unit Drilling Company in Tulsa in 1964.

He married Nancy Sue Bodard on June 3, 1972.

He purchased American National Bank and Trust Company of Shawnee in the spring of 1991.

He served on the board of directors of the Independent Association of Oilwell Drilling Contractors. He was a member of the Methodist church.

Bodard received many awards including: the "Others" award from the Salvation Army in 1982, was named Small Business Leader of the Year by the Shawnee Chamber of Commerce in 1986; the Woodmen of the World Outstanding Citizen Award in 1990; and the Willie Stargell Alumni Award in Earlsboro in 1997.

Survivors include his wife, Nancy, of the home; his children, Dona and Mike Adcock of Shawnee; Lana Hathcock of Sherman, Texas; Karen Nix and James Schlittler of Norman; his grandchildren, Todd and Jon-Mark Adcock of Norman; Taylor Adcock of Shawnee; Holly Hathcock of Tempe, Arizona; Rachelle Hathcock of Sherman, Texas; and a great-grandchild, Kristopher Hathcock of Sherman, Texas.

Memorials may be made to the Shawnee Public Library and the Salvation Army.

Services will be 2 p.m. Monday at Raley Chapel, on the campus of Oklahoma Baptist University.

Several people will be participating in the service, including Wes Schubert, King Kirchner and Don Grimes, who will present eulogies.

Burial will be at Fairview Cemetery, and arrangements are under the direction of Roesch-Walker Funeral Chapel.

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